Kristimama wrote: > Is an all-plant compost (OMRI certified or not) sufficient OM for a productive veggie garden? I'm a complete beginner, but I don't think an all-plant compost is inferior in the least. Not sure but you seem to want to give all-plant composts an inferiority complex :-) Here's a quote from Ann Whitman's and Suzanne DeJohn's book called "Organic Gardening for Dummies" (for dummies like me): "Before buying the compost, ask about the primary organic-matter sources that were used to make the compost. Compost made from yard waste (leaves and grass clippings) is considered to be the safest and best. Other compost may contain ingredients that had contaminants, such as herbicides from agricultural crop residues and heavy metals from municipal wastes, which may affect the growth of your plants or accumulate toxins in your soil. Ask if the finished product is tested for contaminants." When I read above that "Compost made from yard waste (leaves and grass clippings) is considered to be the safest and best," I was spurred on to make my own compost. I don't think there's anything inferior about plain old leaves and grass. To the contrary, they seem to be really good stuff. So good in fact, that tomorrow I'm going to transfer the 3 cubic feet of chopped leaves, grass, and fruit peels from my small trash can to a much bigger round plastic barrel and add even more leaves and grass, doubling the size of the organic matter from 3 cubic feet to 6 cubic feet. "Let It Rot!" seems to be a popular book on Amazon.com about composting. Ordered it a couple days ago.

Not caladium, but thanks. These have multi-leaf stems; the leaves grow from the stalk not from the ground. The leaves are long and narrow and the colors are sort of striped, not speckled like caladium.

I hate the 'mouse graveyard' look of the usual white tags. A couple of years ago we were asked to be a host garden on the local tour; they wanted plants labelled. So I went looking for unobtrusive labels. Coincidentally, I had just been reading something by Beth Chatto about preparing a show garden for Chelsea. She mentioned using black labels with silver writing to label her plants in the show garden. I figured, if they were good enough for Beth Chatto, they wore good enough for me :-) So I went looking for black labels... and found them on an English web site. They were relatively inexpensive and arrived quickly. I used the black T labels and got the silver pens there too. They worked great - the labels were big enough to write a lot of info on and were pretty invisible in the garden. They've held up well too - I removed them after the tour but, since there were hundreds, I missed some. When I come across some in the garden now, they are still in good shape, legible and intact. I highly recommend them. Here is a link that might be useful: black labels - and other things

Jo, when I opened you post and saw your picture it took my breath away. My very first thought is it looked much like the Northern Exposure I'd just planted 4 weeks ago. Chris and Ken, I ALWAYS love when you dive into ID'ing a hosta. Your knowledge and logic is refreshing. As I am sure you have noticed from my other posts I tend to treat hostas as an exact science, and it is not. VC used to be a must for me, but how many hostas have 7-9 vp! Note that is a statement, not a ? No one answered your ? about what veins count Jo. You count all paired veins: full, incomplete and the ones that begin at the base as one and divide into two (can't recall what they are called at the moment) are counted as two. I have found they are usually much more easily counted if you look at the underside, as your pictures show. While knowing which hosta is which is still fun, it is just adding to my love of them. My little, apparently stable and therefore rare variegated seedling will never have a formal name, except what is in my heart. I hope you have success with your gift. Theresa This post was edited by gogirlterri on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:06